Ontario to pull anti-tariff ad after Trump calls off trade talks

Ontario will soon be pulling anti-tariff ads featuring the voice of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan, just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said he is terminating negotiations with Canada while describing the ads as “fake.”

In a statement Friday afternoon, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the decision came after having a conversation with Prime Minister Mark Carney and the ads will be paused starting on Monday.

“Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses,” Ford said in the statement. “We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels. I’ve directed my team to keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend so that we can air our commercial during the first two World Series games.”

Carney, meanwhile, responded on Friday, saying Canada will be “ready to pick up” on negotiations when “the Americans are ready.”

On his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote late Thursday: “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.

“TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”

In a separate post to X on Thursday, The Ronald Reagan Foundation said the ad “misrepresents” a radio address on free and fair trade from April 1987 and “the government of Ontario did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks.”

But the advertisement does appear to accurately quote Reagan, who supported free trade and delivered the remarks to explain new duties on Japanese products as a response to Japan’s violation of a trade agreement on semiconductors.

“High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” Reagan said in the address.

“The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition. So soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying. Then the worst happens, markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industry shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs,” he added.

Reagan and former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney later went on to sign the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement in 1988.

Source: White House has ‘visceral distaste’ for Ford

After the ad caught the attention of Trump earlier this week, Ford defended the move, saying the aim is to “blast” the message to Americans, particularly Republican districts where Trump draws his support.

The ad, which Ford previously said cost $75 million, has been running on most major U.S. networks.

A senior U.S. government source tells CTV News that the White House has long had a “visceral distaste” for Ford, with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick even referring to him as a “lightweight.”

But the source also tells CTV News that Trump is more broadly concerned about the U.S. Supreme Court, which will begin hearing arguments about the legality of Trump’s global tariffs on Nov. 5, and there are “likely more shoes to drop” amid those concerns.

Ford, meanwhile, did not respond directly to Trump on Friday morning, but shared Reagan’s original radio address in a post on X.

“Canada and the United States are friends, neighbours and allies. President Ronald Reagan knew that we are stronger together,” Ford also wrote.

In a new post to Truth Social on Friday morning, Trump doubled down on his claims of fraud, saying Canada “fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY.”

“Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country. Canada has long cheated on Tariffs, charging our farmers as much as 400%. Now they, and other countries, can’t take advantage of the U.S. any longer,” Trump also wrote.

Carney: ‘Ready to pick up’ on progress made

Carney and his cabinet have been in ongoing discussions with Trump and his administration for months, as the trade war between the two countries drags on.

Throughout the negotiations, Carney has signalled it’s highly unlikely any country will come away from talks with the United States with an entirely tariff-free deal. Instead, Canada is hoping to secure deals on specific sectors, including steel and aluminum.

Speaking to reporters on Friday on his way to the ASEAN and APEC summits in Asia, Carney did not mention Trump by name or the ad, but said Canada will “stand ready to pick up” on progress that he says has been made with the U.S.

“My colleagues have been working with their American colleagues on detailed, constructive negotiations. Discussions on specific transactions, specific sectors, steel, aluminum and energy,” Carney said. “A lot of progress that’s been made, and we stand ready to pick up on that progress and build on that progress when the Americans are ready to have those discussions.”

Earlier this week, Carney did not dismiss the possibility for a new sectoral tariff deal with the United States, saying “we’ll see” when asked whether Canada can expect a deal on sectoral tariffs by this month’s APEC summit.

Trump is also expected to attend ASEAN and APEC summits next week.

This is not the first time Trump abruptly ended negotiations with Canada in a social media post.

Back in June, Trump called off trade talks “effective immediately,” citing disagreement over Canada’s controversial digital services tax as the reason for shutting down negotiations.

White House: Further talks are ‘futile’ if ‘Canada can’t be serious’

In a statement to CTV News on Friday, the White House doubled down on Trump’s claims.

“These good-faith efforts with Canadian officials have not led to any constructive progress. Ontario’s taxpayer-funded ad campaign on American TV networks – that misleadingly edited President Reagan’s 1987 radio address about trade – is the latest example of how Canadian officials would rather play games than engage with the Administration,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said.

“As President Trump made clear on Truth Social, further talks are a futile effort if Canada can’t be serious.”

Other members from the Trump administration also spoke out on Friday.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he has not spoken yet to Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, but acknowledged the anti-tariff ad.

“I think what happened is one of the leaders in Canada was running ads in the United States on trade, on tariffs that took President Reagan’s words out of context,” Rubio said while speaking to the media in Kiryat Gat, Israel.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Fox News on Friday, Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett said Trump is “very frustrated” and that the move by Trump is not “about one thing.”

“The fact is the negotiations with the Canadians have not been very collegial, they have not been going well. I think the president is very frustrated,” Hassett said.

With files from CP24’s Joshua Freeman, CTV News’ Spencer Van Dyk, CTV News’ Chief Political Correspondent Vassy Kapelos and CTV News’ Brennan MacDonald